


Not Those Stars

by hummingbirdbandit



Series: Strilonde Theme Sprints [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Boys In Love, Fireflies, Fluff, M/M, Strilondes, Theme Sprints, davekat - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-14
Updated: 2018-05-14
Packaged: 2019-05-06 20:45:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14655870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hummingbirdbandit/pseuds/hummingbirdbandit
Summary: He timed it perfectly. Of course he did. Of course.





	Not Those Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LandOfMistAndSecrets](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LandOfMistAndSecrets/gifts).



> My first entry for the Strilonde Fan Jams Theme Sprints! Prompt was "stars/starlight."

“Dave, slow down!” Karkat shouted over the sound of water, pounding on the rocks below.  Dave ignored him, flying down perilous paths and water slickened rocks to the place Rose had told him about.  He had to know where he was going. Had to know it would be perfect. Karkat deserved nothing less. He burst out through the trees and his anxiety waned.  This was going to work.

“Damn gods forget that I cannot fucking fly!” Karkat yelled at him when he returned.  Dave just smiled and took the verbal beatdown as he walked along beside the man who had taken over his entire life.  It was funny, looking back, how lost he had been in all of this. Things that had once seemed world ending were just silly memories, drops in the river of his life.  No matter where he started along its ebb and flow, it always brought him back to Karkat’s waiting arms.

Rainbow Falls was beautiful - that much they were in agreement on, even as Karkat bitched about the walk and Dave bemoaned the heat.  Dave could see why Rose had loved it here as a child, and how it could have helped shape her. Thousands of years had passed on Earth C, and time had only served to deepen the natural beauty.  It loosened mankind’s grip on the movement of things. Paths crumbled away to dust, and the trees came back to reclaim it. It was poetic. It was right.

A thousand thoughts whirled through Dave’s mind as they trudged along through the brush.  He fingered the box in his pocket and swallowed down his fear. This was good. It was time.  The basket on his arm felt heavy with unspoken words and kept secrets, and Dave longed to put it down with the setting sun.  Karkat placed a hand in his to steady himself and Dave breathed, his mind clearing. Fear gone. Heart set. He pushed aside some branches and led Karkat into the clearing.

The lake sprawled away into the distance, reflecting the sunset across its tranquil surface.  Herons circled overhead and the space sang with the sounds of nature. Karkat let out a breath beside him, and Dave smiled.  Bingo. He stepped close to the water’s edge and began laying out their picnic, Karkat by his side.

They laughed and joked, but Dave was distracted as he watched the sun set.  One by one the stars peeked out, blinking in constellations both familiar and new.  Dave felt a pang of homesickness, but a glance into Karkat’s glowing eyes quelled it instantly.  He _was_ home.     
   

“So, why did you bring me all the way out here on this bulge-humpingly difficult walk?  We could sit and look at the stars back home, that’s nothing new. Not that it’s not pretty, I’m not saying that, I just don’t understand.  You don’t like putting extra effort into something if you can keep from it.” Dave flushed, happy for the darkness and his shades to hide his nervousness.  

“It’s not those stars I wanted to show you, KK, and we don’t have these back home.”  He timed it perfectly. Of course he did. Of course.

They began to blink, cautiously, in the grass.  The trees and the lake lit with the mating dance of thousands of fireflies.  Karkat’s face was brighter still as he took it all in.

“Dave, what-”  A firefly landed on his arm, blinking and wandering across the alien surface.  Karkat drew it up to his face to get a closer look and it took off, airborne. His laugh echoed across the clearing as more of the bugs landed in his hair and on his horns, drawn, presumably, by the pleased chittering he made.  Dave’s heart ached as he watched.

Karkat was distracted - this was the time.  He slid his hand into his pocket and grabbed the box, heart pounding in his ears.  He always knew when time was right. It was his blessing and his curse, and for once, he was proud and glad to have mastered it.  

“So, Karkat.  It’s been… a long time.  Since the meteor, and the… everything.  That happened after. And where I came from, back on Earth, when you want to make a um… a future, with someone you uh…”  Shit. He was floundering. Karkat looked at him, face open and relaxed.

“What are you saying Dave?”

Dave pulled the box out of his pocket and opened it, showing it to Karkat.  It was a ring, carved from dark wood. Simple, like their bond. Strong and unbreakable.  He pulled it free of the cushion it had sat in for months and held it up.

“I mean, I know Rose and Kanaya stuck to the whole human tradition and whatever, I don’t care about all that, but I care about you and you’re my best bro, and no one else matters that much to me.  You put up with my bullshit and call me out when I’m being a prick and frankly I dunno how you manage it because I know for certain that sometimes I really need to just shut up, like now for example, and-”

 "Dave.”  Dave swallowed, still holding the ring.  “Are you asking me to be your human husband?”  Dave let out a shocked laugh and ran his free hand through his hair.

“Yeah, I guess I am.  You want to?”

Karkat reached out and took the ring, sliding it onto his finger carefully.  It gleamed as a firefly landed on the back of his hand, and he smiled. “Yeah.  I think I do.”

 


End file.
